TV SHOW SERIES

I love to watch TV! I could spend hours and hours sitting mesmerized by sitcoms, reality shows and dramas, but lately I have been feeling like there’s more important things I should be doing with my time. So instead of tuning in every evening, I have found other ways to keep up with my favorite shows.

Instead of locking myself on the couch every night at primetime, I watch full seasons at a time on DIRECT TV, HULU.COM and on occasion ITUNES. Watching full seasons at a time with no commercial interruptions is FABULOUS!

DIRECT TV is the easiest option to catch up on shows. I just plug in 001 on my cable box and I’m taken directly to some of the best shows on TV (HBO and Showtime are FABULOUS)! One of my favorites is Showtime’s CALIFORNICATION. Not only is this dark comedy set right in my neighborhood, it is witty and smart. The cast is excellent, especially David Duchovny as Hank Moody, a writer in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

I’ve also gotten hooked on HBO’s BIG LOVE, a drama about a family in Utah who practice polygamy under a fictional fundamentalist Mormon sect. BIG LOVE stars Bill Paxton, Chloë Sevigny (who is awesome), Jeanne Tripplehorn (who’s such a great actress that she makes polygamy some how seem relatable), Ginnifer Goodwin (who is my favorite) and many more extremely talented actors. BIG LOVE is an edge of the seat drama that leaves you unsettled and uncomfortable at every turn, yet it is still totally addictive.

New to HBO and also on my list of shows is UNITED STATES OF TARA, created by Diablo Cody (writer of the movie JUNO). Starring Toni Collette as Tara, a wife and mother with dissociative identity disorder (DID) who decides to take a break from her medication to discover the cause of her disorder. Her alternate personalities (wild and flirty 16-year-old T, fifties housewife Alice, male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck) emerge through out the show creating an entertaining and touching, dark comedy.

Another FABULOUS way to catch up on shows is HULU.COM. HULU.COM is a website where you have access to clips and full-length episodes from more than 1,000 current primetime TV shows as well as movies. Watching is totally free and you don’t have to download any new software (and it’s legal)! With limited commercial interruptions, you can catch up on your computer (or if you have a lap top… on the go).

I watched the whole first season of THE STARTER WIFE on the plane to New York (you can NOW get the internet on some flights)! THE STARTER WIFE is a comedy about life after divorce. Debra Messing plays Molly Kagan, the ex-wife of a Hollywood entertainment mogul who finds a fabulous independent life after divorce. The mini-series was laugh out loud funny and though I didn’t love season 2 as much, it is still worth tuning in.

I also always catch up on HEROES (one of my favorite shows ever)! I am not usually a fan of science fiction, but HEROES hooked me in from the first season. HEROES intertwines stories of ordinary people who inexplicably develop superhuman abilities and then try to save the world. It reminds me somewhat of a comic book come to life.

Sometimes if I miss an episode of a show that I love and I can’t find it on DIRECT TV or HULU, I download it on ITUNES. I try not to do it too often because it can get expensive (each episode is between $1.99 and $2.99).

Recently, I was looking for SAMANTHA WHO? but I couldn’t find it anywhere so I downloaded the whole first season on ITUNES. I had heard good things about the show, which won an Emmy Award. The show centers around Samantha Newly (Christina Applegate), a vice president of a real estate firm who develops retrograde amnesia after a hit and run accident. When she wakes from her coma, she realizes that she had been selfish and unlikable before her accident, and then she sets out to become a better person. It’s a light and funny show and I have a huge crush on the actor Barry Watson!

Catching up on TV shows by the full season without commercial interruptions is FABULOUS! Which show should I watch next?